Vlogging About Going Freelance
I launched my vlog last week! Snapchat has been a great way for me to get used to talking in front of a camera, so now I've graduated to vlogging. The theme is still the same. I'm chronicling the journey of leaving a secure job to go freelance.
My goal is to provide an interesting, entertaining, and most importantly, valuable takeaways for those who want to do the same. I don’t want to get a year in to freelancing and wish that I had captured those first few months.
Putting yourself out there
If I've learned anything over the last few years, it's to get over my fears and put myself out there more. You're probably a lot like me. You're a perfectionist and have a fear deep down that you're not good enough. But as my friend Buzz Berry said, ”You are nowhere near as good as you are going to be. Nowhere close. You have to accept the fact that every day, you’re gonna get better and better and better. There are too many times that people don’t move forward because they’re afraid and they don’t have all the answers. You have to have confidence and the knowledge that when you need the answers, the answers will be there for you.” If you wait to put yourself or your work out there for the world to see until you are as good as you're going to be, you'll never get there.
Today is the day to defeat your fear and publish your work. Release your voice into the world. Speak with authority. Putting yourself out there creates a virtuous cycle of gaining more and more confidence.
Mixing passions and skills
I’ve always enjoyed telling stories. And before I got into motion design, I did a fair amount of video production and editing. So the workflow for vlogging is familiar. I’m no master, but I know my way around Adobe Premiere and doing L and J cuts. It is so much fun to put these together.
A formula for decided to say yes or no to a project
I heard someone recently say that they have a simple way of deciding on what projects to say yes to. It has to align with at least two of the follow criteria, preferably all three:
- It’s fun
- It makes a positive impact on the world
- It’s profitable
Vlogging easily fits into the first two categories for me. It’s fun and it’s my goal to value to the lives of those who watch it. I’m not planning on making direct profit off of vlogging. There will never be ads on them, but if I get a new client because of the vlog, then it falls into the profit category as well :)
Hustling
The time commitment to do frequent vlog output is no joke. This week, I’ve been tackling client projects during my normal business hours and vlog editing at night and early in the morning. There’s a good chance you’ve seen Casey Neistat’s YouTube channel. He’s a vlogging beast. Every morning, he posts the previous day’s vlog. It’s pretty insane. Having done four days in a row, I have a lot more respect for what he’s doing.
I am not strictly doing a daily vlog, but I do plan on putting out several per week.
You can see all of the vlog episodes here. The channel isn't very pretty yet. I'm still learning how to make it nice :)